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83 ELARA (ELALAN) AND THE CHRONICLES OF There are
two sets of Chronicles on which the historians of These are really a collection of legends and traditions embellished by the prejudices of their priestly compilers. The Mahavamsa itself was an elaboration of the earlier Dipavamsa and assumes the form of a romance enlarged by poetic fancies of the author and the addition of miracles and military campaigns unknown to the Dipavamsa; while, of the Dipavamsa, the verdict has been that ‘in the absence of any sources, the last named work (i.e. the Dipavamsa) must be considered as standing unsupported on its own faltering feet.’ The CULAVAMSA (KULAVAMSA) a continuation of the Mahavamsa commenced in the XIII century, and was probably written by a Chola (Tamil) monk called Dharmakirti. The Pali, in which the older chronicles were written, is not likely to have been understood by the monks of a later day, and the text itself consisted of a single copy belonging to a period not earlier than two centuries ago. It had remained a closed book to the Sinhalese. The Sinhalese Prakrit of the later Chronicles itself appears to have been something mysterious to the Sinhalese of the period in which they were compiled. It was left to an Englishman (TURNOUR) to study Pali in the absence of any Pali Dictionary being available, and to present to the Sinhalese and to the world the existence of such a record of the island from the stand-point of the early Buddhist priesthood. It was after Turnour’s translation of the Mahavamsa that the first Sinhalese translation of the Mahavamsa appeared. From the nature of the accounts given in the Pali Chronicles about Elara, the great Tamil ruler of the second century B.C., we could gauge the reliance that could be placed on them and the part played by the personal bias of the compilers. 84 The Dipavamsa, the earliest Pali Chronicle on which the later Mahavamsa written in Pali was based gives the following account of Elara, his predecessors and of Duttugemunu, who becomes the hero of the Mahavamsa. Ch. XVIII: 47. The Damilas Sena and Guttaka, capturing Sura Tissa ruled righteously for twenty-two years. 48. Prince Asela, the son of Mutasiva, killing Sena and Guttaka, ruled for ten years. 49. The Prince named Elara killing Asela by name ruled righteously for forty-four years. 50. Avoiding the paths of desire, hatred, fear, and delusion he ruled righteously being incomparable. 51. There was no rainfall during winter, summer and rainy seasons; cloud always rained there was rainfall for seven weeks. 52. There were three cases (which) the king decided cloud rained during the night and there was no rainfall during the day. 53. & 54. The Prince named Abhaya was the son of Kakavanna, who was surrounded by ten warriors. Kandula was his elephant there. Killing 32 kings alone, continuing the family, the Prince ruled for twenty years. Here Abhaya (vv. 53, 54) was no other than Duttugemunu. It will be noted that nothing is said here of a war between Elara and Duttugemunu, nor is it stated that Duttugemunu killed Elara, although other killers and killings are specified. Now let us turn to the account in the Mahavamsa composed in the sixth century, two centuries later than the Dipavamsa. The only known source from which the author of the Mahavamsa could have obtained his material was the Dipavamsa. Although the Mahavamsa is in fact a mere elaboration of the Dipavamsa, the priestly author of Mahavamsa appears to have used his imagination to make Duttugemunu the Saviour of Buddhism in the island, realising that the greatest 85 threat to a Buddhist Priesthood which had entrenched itself in the central kingdom of the island came from the Saiva Tamil kings and their people. Of Elara, the Mahavamsa gives the following picture: - “A Damila of noble descent, named Elara, who came hither from the Cola country to seize on the kingdom, ruled when he had overpowered king Asela, forty-four years, with even justice towards friend and foe, on occasions of disputes at law.” (MHV. Ch. XXI vv. 13-14) It then relates the story of the bell and the cow, the snake and the bird, the old woman and her rain-drenched rice to illustrate the Tamil king’s sense of justice not only towards his subjects but to animals and birds alike, and his deep piety and love of the poor. Elara is mentioned as having sacrificed his own son in meting out justice to the cow that was deprived of its calf. These were in fact the elaboration of the three cases the earlier chronicle states Elara had decided. The Mahavamsa emphasizes Elara’s tolerance and the great respect he showed towards Buddhism, its places of worship and its priesthood by describing the action taken by the king, when accidentally the yoke of the wagon in which he was traveling had caused some minor damage to a Thupa. He is said to have alighted from his wagon and flung himself on the road with the words, “Sever my head also (from the trunk) with the wheel”. When his ministers told him that it was not necessary to undergo such penance, he is said to have given fifteen hundred kahapanas to compensate for the fifteen stones damaged. The Mahavamsa concludes its account of the character and rule of Elara in the following words: - “Only because he freed himself from the guilt of walking in the path of evil did this (monarch), though he had not put aside false beliefs, gain such marvelous power.” The Dipavamsa makes no mention whatever of a war between Duttugemunu and Elara nor does it sate that the latter was killed by Duttugemunu in single combat (an elaboration which appears to have been added by the author of the Mahavamsa for the edification of the pious). In the delineation of the character and greatness of Elara, however, both the Chronicles, agree. Now let us turn to the ‘Sinhalese’ chronicles, Pujavali (XIII C) and the Rajaratnakara (XVI C) and the Rajavali (XVIII C). It is not likely that these writers had read either the Dipavamsa or the Mahavamsa for the simple reason that they 86 were written in Pali and no translations of them were available in
Sinhalese till the XX century and that it was only after an Englishman had
translated the Mahavamsa into English that the
English educated Sinhalese came to read about its contents. The names of the kings of The writers of the Sinhalese chronicles had probably heard by word of mouth of a war between the Tamil Saivite king Elara and Duttugemunu whom the Buddhist priesthood had traditionally held to be an early champion of Buddhism. These Sinhalese chroniclers, themselves priests, give a totally different picture of Elara. They represent him as a desecrator of Buddhist monuments and a destroyer of Buddhist temples. The author of the Mahavamsa, without doing any violence to the character of Elara as represented in the earlier Chronicle, the Dipavamsa, guilds his hero, Duttugemunu with a fabulous account of a long and glorious campaign against the Tamil king – a campaign about which the Dipavamsa was unaware. When it is remembered that the Dipavamsa was a pious work which the king, Dhatusena caused to be annually read out in an assembly of the Priesthood before the Mahavamsa came to be composed, it is not understandable how an account of such a glorious religious war of liberation attributed to Duttugemunu by the later chronicle could have been omitted. The inference is inescapable that already in the days of Mahanama there had arisen a growing fear among the Buddhist priesthood that Saivaism represented by the Tamil kings might once again become triumphant. A prophylactic against such a contingency was necessary, and this could be most effectively achieved by making a priest-sponsored supporter of the Buddhist cause a hero. It has been pointed out that in the early inscriptions available no reference whatever is made either to Duttugemunu or to Devanampiya Tissa – the two heroes of the Mahavamsa. “None of the names by which the early kings are introduced in the inscriptions is identical with that which occurs in the chronicles. The identifications so far suggested are tentative” and “The two heroes – Devanampiya Tissa and Duttugemunu are still missed in them” says B. C. Law, the greatest living authority on the Pali Chronicles of Ceylon. In fact
the names of the kings of 87 to by different names, and accepted Dravidian names in particular have become completely distorted. This fact may be checked by a reference either to the alternative names found in the list of kings given by Dr. G. C. Mendis in his ‘Early History of Ceylon’ or to the earlier Pali chronicles rather than to the more recent Sinhalese traditional histories such as the Pujavali or Rajaratnakara. The latter Sinhalese chronicles which are written in Prakritised Sinhalese were composed at a time when, with the advent of the Europeans, a sense of incipient nationalism took an anti-Tamil orientation. The authors of these chronicles, without any foundation for their views, have ascribed to the Tamil Elalan (Elara) deliberate acts of sacrilage insinuating that the decay of Buddhism as well as that of the Sinhalese race, language, and literature was brought about by the Tamils – a consolation for the bankruptcy of the two thousand years of culture to which frequent allusion is made by them. In order
to assess correctly the causes which led to the decay of the early culture of
1.
The culture of 2. Parakramabahu the Great (a Pandyan himself) for the first time (XII century) made a conscious effort to build up a Ceylonese Nation. But even he found it necessary to bring in Tamil artificers to construct the buildings in Polonnaruwa and to repair those at Andhradhapura. 3.
The ascertained ineptitude of the Sinhalese to bear
arms obliged the kings to depend on mercenaries from 4. The lack of interest taken by the native Sinhalese in matters pertaining to the sea and in sea-faring and naval activities made the country at all times dependent on South Indian seamen for the protection of the coasts of Ceylon. 88 5. The multitudes of those who were attracted to a life of indolent devotion by joining the ranks of a decadent priesthood, became so excessive that the country became impoverished. Time and money which should have been directed towards the development of the country had to be devoted to the building of innumerable numbers of viharas and dagobas and to feed a large section of a non productive population. 6.
The tanks and
fields, which were the main support of the kings and their armies and a large
body of priests and monks, were damaged frequently either by wars between
rival kings of the island supported by their sponsors in the Chola or the Pandyan country or
through natural forces as well as sheer neglect. Repairs to these tanks and the maintenance
of irrigation and cultivation could not be effected
without the aid of Indian engineers and specially trained men from the Tamil
country. Tennent
tells us in 1850 that during his time the services of Tamils had to be
obtained for repairing tanks in the 7. Hinayana Buddhism was at all times opposed to Art and Music together with every other embellishment of worldly life. 8. It was during the period of the BAHUS beginning from about the time of Parakramabahu I, the Pandyan, in the twelfth century, that an attempt was made to develop an indigenous literature. This began at first in the form of translations from Pali religious works. The result was the growth of a new language which might be termed Sinhalese-Prakrit as removed from the original Elu, as Telugu was, for instance, from Tamil. This literature had to look for themes to Hindu lore and Tamil literature for its inspiration. 89 NOTES1. Journal of the Pali Text Society, 1908, p. 1. 2.
B. C. Law, ‘On the
Chronicles of 3.
‘Annals
of the 4.
5. ibid. vv. 19-20. 6. ibid. vv. 33-37. 7. ibid. vv. 21-26. 8. ibid. v. 34. 9.
Tennent ‘ 10. B. C. Law, ibid. p. 15. 11. ibid. p. 65. 12. ibid. p. 65. 13. Dr. G. C. Mendis, ‘Early History of Ceylon’, 1954 Ed. vide List of Kings. 14. There was for instance a special class of skilled workmen the OTTAR who attended to the repairs and digging of tanks. 15. Tennent, vol. 1, p. 408, p. 468. 16. ibid. p. 498. 17. ibid. p. 498, vol. II, p. 152. 18. ibid. vol. I, p. 348. 19. ibid. vol. II, p. 543. 20.
“The Art
of Indian 21. Godakumbura ‘Sinhalese Literature’, pp. 281-287. |